IQ NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



mon than any other species. He met with it on San Pablo Bay, inhabiting 

 holes in the perpendicular cliffs bordering tlie south shore. It was also 

 found in the Klamath Basin, but not in great numbers. 



Mr. J. H. Clark found the Barn Owl nesting, in May, in holes burrowed 

 into the bluff banks of the Eio Frio, in Texas. These burrows were nearly 

 horizontal, with a considerable excavation near the back end, where the eggs 

 were deposited. These were three or four in number, and of a dirty white. 

 The parent bird allowed the eggs to be handled without manifesting any 

 concern. There was no lining or nest whatever. Lieutenant Couch found 

 them common on the Lower Eio Grande, but rare near Monterey, Mexico. 

 They were frequently met with living in the sides of large deep wells. 



Dr. Coues speaks of it as a common resident species in Arizona. It was 

 one of the most abundant Owls of the Territory, and was not unfrequently 

 to be observed at midday. On one occasion he found it preying upon Black- 

 birds, in the middle of a small open reed swamp. 



It is not uncommon in the vicinity of Washington, and after the partial 

 destruction of the Smithsonian Building by fire, for one or two years a pair 

 nested in the top of the tower It is quite probable that the comparative 

 rarity of the species in the Eastern States is owing to their thoughtless 

 destruction, the result of a short-sighted and mistaken prejudice that drives 

 away one of our most useful birds, and one which rarely does any mischief 

 among domesticated birds, but is, on the contrary, most destructive to rats, 

 mice, and other mischievous and injurious vermin. 



Mr. Audubon mentions two of these birds which had been kept in con- 

 finement in Charleston, S. C, where their cries in tlie night never failed to 

 attract others of the species. He regards them as altogether crepuscular in 

 habits, and states that when disturbed in broad daylight they always fly in 

 an irregular and bewildered manner. Mr. Audubon also states that so far 

 as his observations go, they feed entirely on small quadrupeds, as he has 

 never found the remains of any feathers or portions of birds in their 

 stomachs or about their nests. In confinement it partakes freely of any 

 kind of flesh. 



The Cuban race (var. furcata), also found in other West India islands, is 

 hardly distinguishable from our own bird, and its habits may be presumed 

 to be essentially the same. Mr. Gosse found the breeding-place of the 

 Jamaica Owl at the bottom of a deep limestone pit, in the middle of 

 October ; there was one young bird with several eggs. There was not the 

 least vestige of a nest ; the bird reposed on a mass of half-digested hair min- 

 gled with bones. At a little distance w^ere three eggs, at least six inches apart. 

 On the 12th of the next month he found in the same place the old bird 

 sitting on four eggs, this time placed close together. There was still no nest. 

 The eggs were advanced towards hatching, but in very different degrees, 

 and an egg ready for deposition was found in the oviduct of the old bird. 



An egg of tliis Owl, taken in Louisiana by Dr. Trudeau, measured 1.69 



